Brandon Johnson of Big Spring is nuts about movies

Published 2:00 pm, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Brandon Johnson of Big Spring says there aren't many people as passionate about movies as he is. "But I'm beginning to find a few."

Brandon studied film at the University of Texas and made a couple of small movies, spending a lot of money and getting loads of frustration in the process. His experience whetted his appetite to do something within the industry.

He works at his family's oilfield supply business to make a living.

He does other things to have fun. He is a drag boat racer and has racked up a few championships.

"College was an on-again, off-again thing," said Brandon. "I got so involved with drag racing my boats I let everything else just slip away. Marriage changed all that. Now I'm focused in the right direction to take care of my wife and two little girls."

A couple of years ago Brandon started a summer film program to screen box office hits at various locations around Big Spring. The first one, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," was shown on top of Scenic Mountain in Big Spring's state park.

"'Close Encounters' had just been put out on Blu-Ray so we could have a high definition picture. We advertised and did all sorts of things to promote the showing of the film. Weather came in that night and there was a football game. I learned that night never to schedule anything on a football night in West Texas because nobody will show up. Anyway, the guy I got the big screen from told me once he set up I had to pay the rental on it. I'm not a gambler, but I decided to gamble on this. I told him to go ahead and set it up and let's see what happens. Now on top of Scenic Mountain you can see what's going on in the weather real good. Clouds came up and five minutes into the movie it started sprinkling. It lasted about five minutes. We're sitting up there on the mountain, the storm's going from Sterling City to Colorado City and we're watching this movie about UFOs and we have this huge lightning show going on beyond the screen. There were only 150 people in the audience, but I didn't care. It was awesome."

His second screening was "Jaws," projected near the lake in Big Spring's Comanche Trail Park. Eight hundred people came out to see it. He then showed "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in the city's amphitheater. He has the facility booked for three years showing Indiana Jones movies. He showed "ET" and "Jurassic Park" at the state park and the showings set new records for state park attendance. This year he plans to screen "Ghostbusters" downtown, "Memphis Belle" at Hangar 25 Air Museum, and "Back to the Future" at a location yet to be decided.

Brandon also does a "music from the movies" program on KBYG radio in Big Spring. His 6-year-old daughter co-hosted his Christmas broadcast, which featured the soundtracks from "Home Alone," "Polar Express," "Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

He is planning a fundraiser for the Big Spring Film Society. He would like to see his city have a film and music festival. The website is bigspringfilm.org.